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This grows on the bark of a branch on our very old pear tree. It reaches only about 3mm diameter and is grey to bluish. Unlike most mushrooms, this grow well above ground level and I had to stand on a garden stool to take these shots. It is saprobic on live, more or less moss-covered, bark of broad-leaved trees. A similar, but pink or reddish species, Mycena meliigena may be found growing alongside it but I have not seen this.

I have just found two images, shot four years ago with my EP-2, using flash,I have just found two images, shot four years ago with my EP-2, using flash, lens not recorded but probably Leitz Emarit 60mm macro. The flash was calibrated legacy Olympus T Series manual. They show the colour better. They show the typical colour better. This made me wonder if I used the wrong WB for the above images but a check showed that I did not. An internet search produced images of both colour forms.

I photographed it in October 2014 and in October 2018. It may be around in other months.

Harold

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OK, this is closer to white than black but that was the name I was given until it can be accurately identified. These were about an inch across, much smaller than the common White Saddle H. crispa. H. atra is uncommon, most of the foray group, including myself, having not seen it before (whatever the exact species it is).

I go out on regular fungus forays, mainly in woodland, with a group which includes people very capable of identifying a large number of diverse fungi. However, whenever I hand them some of these they name the genus Mollisea but say that species cannot be identified and the group need microscopic examination. Even so, specialists who study them say that a complete taxonomic revision is long overdue. There are dozens of species. It is common practice to record these as "Mollisea cinerea aggregate".

I found these on Sunday on the bark of a fallen tree and noticed the reddish colour in the centres. The leader of the foray suggested the colour might be from the impact of drops of recent rain. If so, it seems to persist when they dry out. They are about 1-2mm across.

I photographed them in the field (some leaf scales of trees in the frame) and then at home at x2.5 f8 and x5 f11.

I believe this is the same species as the prolific one I posted several weeks ago and it was growing on the same pile of wood chips. However, this is one of only two in that locality this year where the white veil has remained so intact while the cap underneath reached almost full size. There is such intricate detail in this outer layer.

That some creature has taken bites out of it only emphasises the details.

I believe this is the same species as the prolific one I posted several weeks ago and it was growing on the same pile of wood chips. However, this is one of only two in that locality this year where the white veil has remained so intact while the cap underneath reached almost full size. There is such intricate detail in this outer layer.

That some creature has taken bites out of it only emphasises the details.

Earlier this year I posted some images of unfamiliar fungal growths on my much-studied pile of rotting Sycamore logs. By unfamiliar, I mean that I had never seen anything like them in half a century of hunting for, and three decades of photographing, fungi.

Enquiries established that they were emerging fruiting bodies (ascocarps) of the Ascomycete Club with the common name of Dead Moll’s Fingers Xylaria longipes